


Prowling

by Rysler



Category: Batman (Comics), Gotham Central
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-05
Updated: 2010-06-05
Packaged: 2017-10-09 22:28:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/92277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rysler/pseuds/Rysler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dating a street cop when you're a spoiled college student is harder than it looks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prowling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kathryne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathryne/gifts).



Kate knocked on the squad car window. She was a shadow against the alleyway's darkness. A smiling shadow holding a white cup.

Renee yelped. She glared at Kate and then rolled down the passenger side window. Half an inch.

"Hi," Kate said.

Renee ran her fingers through her hair, trying not to look startled. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.

"I brought coffee."

"It's three in the morning," Renee said.

"I'm a college student, remember? I was up."

Renee leaned back in the driver's seat. She tried to look unassailable in her marked patrol car.

Kate was unperturbed. "Let me in. It looks like I'm a prostitute out here. Or buying drugs. Something bad. Let me in!"

"It'll look like that anyway, damnit."

Kate looked sad. And the scent of coffee was wafting through the open window. Renee unlocked the door.

Kate slid in. "Hello, sugar. Fuzz. Pig." She leaned in for a kiss. Renee scowled and turned away. Kate's lips landed on her cheek.

Which still felt nice.

"Where's Harvey?" Kate asked.

"What?" Renee straightened, peering at the bank across the street.

"Your partner. The fat guy. 'Gonna teach you everything you know, kid.'"

"I'm never taking you anywhere again."

"He wanted to frisk me."

"Gross." Renee rested her head on the steering wheel.

"Come on," Kate said, rubbing the back of Renee's neck. "What's going on? How are the mean streets of Gotham City?"

The neck rub felt good, too.

"Are you always this persuasive, Ms. Ivy League?" Renee asked.

"If you'd just look at me, I'd bat my eyelashes."

So Renee looked.

Kate lowered her lids and smiled demurely.

A current with through Renee that had no business being inside her, not while she was on duty.

"You know, you're dangerous," Renee said.

Kate licked her lips.

Renee flushed and looked at the front windshield.

"I'm waiting for an answer," purred Kate.

"He's--I can't tell you where he is, all right? Comprende? I'm covering for him."

"Did you just say 'comprende?'"

"Si. Y mi novia es una chica loca."

"Not esta?"

"Oh, no, it's a permanent state of being," Renee said.

Kate scooted closer, as far as the loaded shotgun between the seats would allow, and put her head on Renee's shoulder.

Renee sighed. She slouched back in the seat. Kate's hair smelled of peaches and her hand on Renee's neck made Renee want to return the favor by putting her hand on Kate's thigh. So she did. Kate's warm skin welcomed her fingers, and Kate's breathy hiss in her ear--Well, alleyways were known for this sort of thing.

"Renee," Kate said. Her fingers teased Renee's hairline.

"Hm?" Renee made lazy circles on Kate's stocking-clad thigh. Really, a leather miniskirt and fishnets at three in the morning made Kate kind of a hooker. A Black Canary hooker. "Why are you dressed like that?"

"This is how Paula Abdul dresses. Didn't you see that video?"

"I had to turn it off. My mom walked into the room and I nearly died."

"You should come to my place. I have a tape of it. Don't you have to answer the radio?" Kate asked.

Messages had been going out over the static since Kate slipped into the car. Renee had barely heard them.

Renee said, "When I have to answer, you'll know. Did you say something about coffee?"

She had to get "Cold-Hearted Snake" off her mind. Focusing on Kate wasn't helping.

Kate pouted--a full on spoiled rich girl pout that made Renee want to kiss her so badly she couldn't move--but she produced the coffee cup.

Uncovered, steaming black liquid.

"Black?" Renee asked.

"You don't like it black? You're a cop."

"Sure. It's three A.M. I'll force it down," Renee said.

She turned to smile at Kate, and Kate was leaning toward her, and their lips met. And lingered. Renee opened herself to the kiss. Then Kate's tongue was in her mouth, and the coffee cup was burning her hands, and she was very much awake.

"You know how many squad cars in dark alleys I had to look at to find you?" Kate asked when they broke apart.

"I'm curious," Renee said.

"Another time." Kate kissed her again.

Renee set the coffee cup on the dashboard and cupped Kate's jaw, leaning in, tugging Kate's lip with her teeth. Kate's hand moved to her shoulder, then to her arm, squeezing, driving her crazy. Renee groaned, and then reciprocated by finding Kate's breast. Never, growing up with Farrah Fawcett's pinup on her wall, had Renee imagined getting to feel breasts like those.

"Can we get in the back seat?" Kate asked.

Renee fell back against the seat, panting. Then she realized Kate had asked her a question. She curled her lips and said, "Sure, but there's no way to get out."

Kate frowned and settled for kissing Renee's neck, then her cheek, then her earlobe. She bit.

Renee twisted and tugged at Kate's shirt. She started thinking of ways she could get off in a confined space. In a patrol car. Harvey would never let her live it down. Kate was clearly on the same wavelength--her hand, which had been balanced on Renee's thigh in order to kiss her more soundly, moved eagerly between Renee's legs.

Somewhere beyond the sound of her own gasps, Renee heard the yelling.

"Hold up," she said.

"A hold up?" Kate asked, jerking back so hard that she hit her elbow on the dashboard. The coffee spilled, between them, onto the shotgun, droplets hitting both their legs.

Kate squeaked.

Renee lifted her hand, not even glancing at the coffee. "I mean, hold up for a second."

Kate narrowed her eyes.

Definitely yelling. Faint. The next block. If the window hadn't been cracked, she wouldn't have heard it. She picked up the radio. "Montoya, making a security check at the corner of Taylor and Elm."

"10-4, Montoya. You've got five minutes."

Renee got out of the car. "Stay here."

"Like hell."

"You're wearing fishnets." Renee opened the trunk, got out a portable radio unit, turned it on, and slung it over her shoulder. She checked her gun.

"I can hear the shouting too," Kate said. "You don't want to call for backup?"

"They could be shouting over football. No need to get too many people involved. There are cops out there fighting real crime."

"I highly doubt that."

"Hey."

"I'm going with you."

Renee sighed.

They walked up the block together.

"It's the middle of the night. People should be asleep," Kate said.

"Like you?"

"Normal people."

Renee pursed her lips.

"So, is this what you do? Park the car and wait for screaming?"

"We drive around, we look at other cars. We park here or there. It's good to mix it up. And to stay in one place, so that the dispatcher can triangulate us when there's a heavy call. And it saves gas."

"It saves gas."

"The gas crisis?"

"The gas crisis was totally years ago," Kate said.

Renee elbowed her.

Kate grinned.

The shouting got them to the building, but it came in fits and starts. Nearly impossible to follow. Definitely impossible to see.

"Where do we--" Kate started.

"There." Renee pointed to a third floor window framing a child's silhouette.

"How do you know? He could be avoiding homework."

"It's three A.M. That may be what you do at three A.M., but he's probably seven."

"Good point."

"Besides, even if it's not the right place, it's a good opportunity to see what's up."

"Going to tell him to stay in school? Stay off the crank?"

"Suck my--" Renee frowned.

"Gladly."

Renee slipped into the front door of the building, unlocked and off its hinges. The shadows hid her blushing, but Kate smacked her on the ass as she started up the stairs. Renee reached back and took her hand. Kate squeezed. Renee stopped on the landing, and pulled Kate in for a kiss. She would have stayed like that, all night in Kate's embrace, if there hadn't been another shout.

Only two floors above them, and now damned easy to hear.

"You come any closer and you'll find this knife in your throat!"

Kate sighed.

"I know," Renee said. "I'd rather be kissing you, too."

She climbed stairs.

"Change the station," Kate said.

"That's the plan."

"So you just go into people's houses and mess with their lives so they don't interrupt your personal life? How's that Constitutional?"

Renee said, "I don't care about civil rights." She could sense Kate's pique, but it was kind of true.

She'd done all right without anyone's help.

"What do you care about?" Kate asked.

"Family. Community. Getting along. Coming together."

"How can an alleged fascist sound like such a hippie?"

"It's how we get you to comply."

"Oh, I'll get you to comply."

"Just change the world, and I won't have to do this shit anymore," Renee said.

"You're good at this shit, hot stuff."

Renee grunted.

"Want me to throw money at the problem? See if it goes away?" Kate asked.

"It sure helps when you're bribing the valet."

"I don't know if bribing--"

Renee lifted her hand. Kate stopped talking. Renee counted doors. She moved toward the target.

Kate followed.

"Stay back," Renee said. "Out of sight. Out of trouble."

Kate snorted, but mercifully didn't say anything.

Renee knocked on the door.

"Oh, now look what you've done, Kamal!" came the voice from inside.

"It's probably Mr. Hoff, saying we woke him up again. Answer the door, Rose."

Rose, Renee thought. That was a nice name.

"You open the door."

"You're closer."

"You're such a worthless excuse for a--"

The door opened.

Renee smiled.

"It's a cop. You happy?" Rose asked, looking Renee up and down.

"I didn't call no cops." A man stepped into view.

"Heard you all the way down the street. Is there a problem here?" Renee asked.

"No problem, officer."

But Rose had a kitchen knife in her hand.

Renee asked, "Why don't you tell me what upset you, Rose?"

"He--" Rose pointed the knife at Kamal. "Didn't get home until two in the morning!"

Renee gestured for Rose to lower the knife, while nodding at Kamal. "Sir?"

"I was at work."

"I called your work, you piece of--"

"Fine. I was at the bar, hoping you'd be asleep by the time I got home. God, you bitch."

Rose screamed.

Renee stepped closer, putting herself in Rose's line of sight, partially blocking Kamal.

"Mom? Why is a police officer here?"

Three heads turned to see the sleepy child leaning against the bedroom doorway. In person, in the light, he was far smaller than Renee had estimated. He stared right at jer.

Renee would have kneeled, and called him over, but there was the knife, and the very angry people. She was starting to get a headache, and she imagined she smelled like sex.

And spilled coffee.

"Kate?" she called.

"Stop lying to a police officer," Rose said. Up went the knife again.

Renee set her jaw.

Kate appeared in the doorway.

Rose turned. "Oh, did we interrupt something, officer?"

"Maybe she just brought her perp with her," Kamal said. He had backed to the other side of the couch.

"Didn't mean to interrupt your hard night's work with my little problems," Rose said.

"She's undercover," Renee said.

Kate giggled, and then clamped her hand over her mouth.

"Oh, sure she is," Rose said.

"You think real prostitutes look like that?" Kamal asked.

Rose turned to him.

"Because I--wouldn't know." He and Rose circled the couch.

"Kate, could you take the kid back to his room and tuck him in?"

Kate stepped into the room. Rose turned the knife on her. The kid ducked half behind the door.

"Um," Kate said.

"Come on, Kate. You're strong. You can handle a kid."

"I don't want her handling my Benji," Rose said.

"You're the one with the knife, you don't get to decide," Renee said.

Rose lowered her knife in confusion.

Kamal furrowed his brow.

Now that they were all staring at her, she could seize the timbre of the conversation. Kate slipped past to the bedroom entrance and bodily herded the kid inside, and shut the door.

Renee said, "Rose, you're going to put the knife on the table there. Kamal, you're going to come over to me."

Kamal slunk over. Rose hesitated, watching them, before setting the knife on the table. All the better to focus her attentions on Renee.

Renee took Kamal's jaw and said, "Let me smell your breath."

He breathed on her. Sour alcohol and unwashed teeth, but nothing out of the ordinary.

"That your kid?" Renee asked.

"Of course it's my--" He glanced at Rose. "It sure as hell better be my kid!"

"Shut up!" Rose shouted. But she left the knife where it was.

"Fine," Renee said.

"You're not going to take him," Kamal said.

"No, sir. I wouldn't come between a man and his son," Renee said.

"What man," Rose said.

Renee looked past Kamal to Rose, and spoke directly to her. "All right, everyone, it's almost four A.M. Time to go to sleep."

Rose didn't say anything. Kamal kept breathing on Renee's cheek.

Renee pointed at the second bedroom. "Goodnight, Rose."

"He's not--"

"He'll be sleeping on the couch."

"I'm not sleeping on the couch," Kamal said.

"Want to sleep it off in the drunk tank?" Renee asked.

Rose went inside the bedroom and slammed the door.

Kamal scowled.

Renee pointed to the couch.

Kamal looked at her, looked at her uniform, then backed up to the couch.

"You get cold tonight? You just deal with it. No going in there for a blanket. Or to pee. Or to brush your teeth."

Kamal sat on the couch.

Renee hit the light switch by the apartment door and the lights went out. Kamal sat watching her, his eyes beady, as she went to the kid's bedroom, knocked, and went in. Kate had the kid in bed. He wasn't quite asleep, and his eyes got bigger as Renee came in. She sat on the edge of the bed.

"They fight like that a lot?" Renee asked.

Benji nodded.

Renee took her card and gave it to him. "You see your mother pick up a weapon again, or your dad, you call me, okay?"

Benji nodded.

Renee said, "No one's in trouble. I just talked to them for a bit. They're cool."

"Will they stop?" Benji asked.

Renee looked at Kate.

Kate looked away.

"Everything's going to be fine," Renee said.

Kate looked back. She folded her arms.

Renee said, "Look. You want to run away, you call me first, okay?"

Benji nodded.

"You go to sleep," Renee said. "Kate and I'll be in the other room."

Benji smiled. He was missing his front teeth.

Kate brushed his forehead, and then followed Renee into the living room. Kamal snored on the couch. Renee went past him, led Kate into the building hallway, and eased the apartment door shut.

"You said we'd stay," Kate said.

"I lied."

"But--"

"Dispatch said I had five minutes. It's been ten." Renee waited until they were in the stairwell, then hit her radio. "Montoya. No disturbance. Returning to squad car."

"10-4" crackled over the static.

Kate said, "You were right. I was strong. He--he like, listened."

Renee nodded.

"I didn't even have a uniform."

"It helps when you do," Renee said.

They went out onto the street.

"I didn't know I could bend people to my will. I mean, like that," Kate said.

Renee shook her head. "Through physical intimidation? Try it on a ten year old next time. Work your way up."

Kate shoved Renee's arm.

Renee reached for Kate's hand. Kate squeezed her fingers, and then let her go.

Kate asked, "So that's it? They sleep it off?"

"That's it."

"But someone's going to get hurt."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it never goes any further," Renee said. "Every family's different."

"Not that different."

"When I get back to work tomorrow, I'll look up prior calls at the residence. And you'll be in your civics class."

"Come on, that's not fair. I could help--"

"How?"

Kate paused, and then asked, "Why didn't you just disarm her?"

"Why didn't I just disarm her? With my ninja kick?"

"I know how strong your thighs are," Kate said.

Renee smiled.

Kate tapped her shoulder. "At least I know what I'm getting you for Christmas."

"Ninja lessons?"

Kate snorted.

They turned into the alleyway. The patrol car was in front of them, half-shadowed and unmolested.

Kate stood just under the last streetlight, and asked, "People live like that? In the middle of the night?"

"Yeah," Renee said. "It didn't surprise me, because--but I sure see a lot more of it since I got out of the Academy last year."

"But not you-- and not me--"

"We're lucky. I guess that doesn't make us average."

"No. Come on, I can't buy that."

"You can buy anything you want, Kate."

Kate's eyes widened, and then narrowed. She moved into the alley and said, "We went, and nothing happened. What was the point of going? Just who are you protecting out here, Renee?"

"I don't know." Renee stepped close enough to Kate in the chest. "You?"

"I don't need your protection, Renee," Kate said.

"You don't? Then what do you need from me?"

Kate grabbed Renee's shoulders and kissed her hard. Renee let herself be crushed--wanted to be crushed, to be squeezed out of existence--until her back hit cold metal and glass. Kate pressed her against the glass, and Renee fought back, kissing Kate's mouth, biting, clawing at her shoulders.

Underneath Kate's jacket, underneath her blouse--now torn--Renee found her breasts, found her nipples hard against sweating palms, found her body warm against her stomach, against her thigh. The kiss broke. Fell between them like Renee's belt, sagging, pulling down her pants with the weight of her gun. Kate's hand took advantage. Renee clung to her shoulders, giving into the heat pooling inside her. Even in chaos, even with the night rushing around them, Kate's fingers were delicate, slipping against Renee, until Renee wanted to beg--if Kate's fingers would just go there, if they would just--and Kate touched her, strafed her need, even before Renee's wish could form on her lips.

"Fuck," she breathed, and gripped Kate's shoulders. Wanting to be mad, wanting to hurt her, but the orgasm released her. Shook her. Just as her pants fell down around her ankles.

Just when Renee trembled in surrender, just when Kate could be coy, Kate threw her arms around Renee and crushed her against the car. Clinging, she sobbed, until Renee held her and tangled her fingers in Kate's long, red hair.

"Go home, Kate," Renee whispered. "I'm going to finish my shift, and sneak into your dorm room, so that when your friends come to take you to Waffle House they'll find a crazy blue collar Latina in your bed."

"Nuh uh. You'll hide under the covers like last time."

"And they'll know just what I'm doing down there."

Kate growled against her ear.

Renee pushed her off, and pulled up her pants, and checked her gun.

Kate slapped the car roof. Somewhere inside, the radio hissed.

Renee straightened Kate's shirt collar.

"So. This is what you do," Kate said.

"Basically every night."

"I thought the police--" She hesitated before saying the words, but said them all the same. "You know. Did more."

"We do what we can. We help," Renee said.

"There's more that would help."

"Sure. Education, job training, parks, alcoholism intervention--"

"No, I mean, like Batman."

"Like Batman? Who's the fascist now?"

"I'm thinking."

Renee leaned against the car and folded her arms.

Kate looked out at the street. She turned back to Renee with a sweet, dangerous smile. "You know, Renee. You've got it wrong. I'll be the one. I'll protect you."

Renee, panting, merely wiped the red lipstick off her mouth, and watched Kate go, and ignored the part of her that wanted it to be true.

END


End file.
